Not only is yours a good question, your timing is exquisite.
Just a few days ago, the Las Vegas Sun ran an informative piece on the ramifications of a casino bankruptcy. According to reporters Liz Benston and Amanda Finnegan, filing Chapter 11 would allow casinos to stay in operation "with their workforces intact [and] shielded from creditors, company revenue could be applied to operations and property enhancement."
Not only have banks shown a preference for not taking over a casino except in extreme circumstances, they would have even less appetite for shutting it down. Their bottom line is aimed at recovering money and a closed casino generates zero revenue. In cases where lenders take over casinos –- as is happening curently with Terrible’s, Whiskey Pete’s, Buffalo Bill’s, and 12 other Herbst Gaming properties –- a third party is usually brought in to run the place at the creditors’ behest.
The same kind of transfer of power has been happening at the Tropicana Las Vegas, formerly owned by Columbia Sussex, but now in the hands of debtors. Rather than closing, it has been revamping its entertainment program and is negotiating with "Pitbull of Comedy" Bobby Slayton to be its headliner.
Generally speaking, the bigger the casino, the more likely it is to stay in business, especially if it’s on the Strip. As the economy depresses prices, customers flock toward casinos (like the Mirage) that might have been unaffordable two years ago. The casino-hotels that are feeling the pinch are the ones at the bottom of the food chain. Buffalo Bill’s, in Primm, made headlines last winter when it closed its hotel midweek, reopening on weekends. In Mesquite, the Oasis essentially closed its hotel -- but still uses it to accommodate overflow customers from the nearby CasaBlanca and Virgin River hotel-casinos, sometimes as often as four days out of seven.
But if you’re staying at a major property on the Strip, you should have nothing to fear.
